For the early captures, see Siege of Boston, 269, 272, 289, 308; Adams's Familiar Letters, 208, 220, 230. Abigail Adams wrote, Sept. 9, 1776, "The rage for privateering is as great here as anywhere, and I believe the success has been as great" (Familiar Letters, 226). The Massachusetts Archives show how large the number of privateers was that hailed from that State. Cf. Mem. Hist. Boston, iii. 118, with references; and the Report on the Mass. Archives (1885), pp. 25, 27-29, 31, 34. Cf. a letter of Thomas Cushing on the building of armed vessels in Mass., in Penna. Mag. of Hist., Oct., 1886, p. 355; and a list by Admiral Preble of those fitted out in Massachusetts, 1776-1783, in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., Oct., 1871. After Boston, the most activity was in Salem. Cf. extracts from Salem Gazette, quoted in A. B. Ellis's Amer. Patriotism on the Sea (Cambridge, 1884, and Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., Jan., 1884); Annals of Salem, by J. B. Felt; Curwen's Journal, 589; W. P. Upham's General Glover; life of E. H. Derby in Hunt's Amer. Merchants, vol. ii; T. W. Higginson, in Harper's Monthly, Sept., 1886.
The records of the proprietors of the New Hampshire privateer "Gen. Sullivan" (1777-1780), showing how the business part of such enterprises was conducted, and the instructions given to commanders, have been printed by Charles H. Bell in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1869, pp. 47, 181, 289. Correspondence of Josiah Bartlett and William Whipple on privateering is in Hist. Mag., vi. 73.
Concerning the Rhode Island privateers, we have William Paine Sheffield's Rhode Island privateers and privateersmen (an address, Newport, 1883); and an account of the privateer "Gen. Washington", in E. M. Stone's Our French Allies, p. 275. (Cf. Arnold's Rhode Island, etc.) Newport is thought to have furnished more seamen than any port except Boston.
For those of Connecticut, see N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1873, p. 101; and on the whale-boat warfare, of which a large part was on Long Island Sound, see Mag. of Amer. Hist., March, 1882, p. 168; N. Y. Evening Post, July 18, 1853 (quoted by Ellis); Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 851; Onderdonk's Rev. Incidents of Long Island, i. 170-234. Cf. also F. M. Caulkins's New London, ch. 31; Hinman's Conn. during the Rev., 592. The British expedition to Danbury was offset by the incursion of Connecticut whale-boats (May, 1777), under Return Jonathan Meigs, to Sag Harbor, where captures were made and shipping burned. Cf. Hildreth's Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, 532; Sparks's Washington, iv. 440; Mag. of American History, April, 1880. Judge Jones (N. Y. during the Rev.) asperses Meigs's character, and Johnston (Observations, etc., 23) defends him.
For those of New York, see N. Y. City Manual, 1870, p. 867. We know less about the privateers fitted out south of New York; but Robert Morris is said to have grown rich on the profits of such enterprises (Chastellux's Voyages, Eng. tr., i. 199, etc.). These ventures were far from uniformly successful, and the losses were many (cf. such instances as are detailed in Moore's Diary, i. 284, 316, etc.), but the losses inflicted by privateers on the British were vastly greater. Lecky (iv. 17) thinks that, though the allurements of such service helped to stay enlistments in the army, it was quite worth such a cost in the damage which the British suffered.
Congress first authorized privateers under Continental commissions March 23, 1776, and regulations were adopted April 2d and 3d,—Washington having made suggestions (Journals, i. 183, 296, 305; John Adams's Works, iii. 37). A collection of Extracts from the Journals of Congress relative to prizes and privateers was printed at Philad. in 1777 (Brinley, no. 4,112). For prize claims, see Poore's Descriptive Catalogue p. 1347; and for lists of prize cases, cf. Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc., 2d ser., ii. 120.
We have various journals and narratives of cruises in privateers: the MS. Journal of Capt. J. Fish in the Amer. Antiq. Soc. (1776-77); Timothy Boardman's Log-book, kept on board the privateer Oliver Cromwell, during a cruise from New London, Ct., to Charleston, S. C., and return, in 1778; also, a biographical sketch of the author, by S. W. Boardman, issued under the auspices of the Rutland County Historical Society (Albany, N. Y., 1885); Solomon Drowne's Journal of a cruise in the fall of 1780, in the private sloop of war Hope, with notes by H. T. Drowne (New York, 1872), and reprinted in The R. I. Hist. Mag., July, 1884; narrative of Capt. Philip Besom, of Marblehead, in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., v. 357.
PAUL JONES.
After the medal struck in his honor by Congress, to commemorate his victory over the "Serapis." Cf. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xi. 299; Loubat's Medallic Hist. U. S.; Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 845; Gay's Pop. Hist. U. S., iii. 622; Thomas Wyatt's Memoirs of the Generals, Commodores, etc. (Phil., 1848, no. 23); John Frost's Pictorial Book of the Commodores (New York, 1845). Madison called Houdon's bust of Jones "an exact likeness." The familiar portrait by C. W. Peale represents him full face, with chapeau, has been engraved by J. B. Longacre, and is in Sherburne's Life of Jones. For a contemporary English print, see J. C. Smith's British Mezzotint Portraits, v. 1735.